Dance director taught thousands

Cheryl Govoni Wenzel of Plainfield was just 17 when she and the other Ginny Kelly Adorables danced by Lake Lucerne in Switzerland with a high school band and chorus providing the musical accompaniment.

But then, 21-day, eight-country tours of Europe were among the perks for members of this elite group at the former Kelly School of Dance in Joliet, which founder Virginia Kelly Balducci ran for 50 years, Cheryl said.

“She had the best quality dance instruction in the area,” said Cheryl, who danced at Virginia’s school for more than 20 years. “I made many friends that I still keep in touch with.”

An aunt who had studied drama and dance provided Virginia’s formal lessons, said Virginia’s daughter, Kristie Morand of Florida. At 9, Virginia danced in backyard “shows” and charged a dime. At 14, Virginia rolled up the parlor room rug and offered quarter lessons. At 17, Virginia began teaching dance at the former Joliet Conservatory of Music for 50 cents.

“She started nightclub dancing, used the name Ginger Ray and made $5 for each performance, even though other dancers were making $12 a week,” Kristie said. “Her mother let her keep the money for clothes.”

Virginia longed to join the Abbott Dancers in the Palmer House in Chicago, Kristie said, but she didn’t have the money to pursue that dream. Instead, after marrying Mike Kelly, Virginia opened a studio in her home; later it was at the Mode Theater building in downtown Joliet.

“In the 1960s, the riots were pretty bad,” Kristie said. “For safety reasons, she moved her studio to Plainfield Road. She taught tap, ballet and jazz; my dad handled tumbling and ballroom.”

Virginia still was a teen when she met her future husband Mike Kelly, already an accomplished ballroom dancer. (Virginia married Umberto J. Balducci in 1997; Mike died in 1987.). Everyone liked dancing with Mike because “he was a good wedding dancer,” Kristie said.

“When he went deaf, he stopped teaching because he couldn’t hear the music anymore,” Kristie said.

Each day after school, Kristie walked from Cathedral of St. Raymond Catholic School in Joliet to the dance studio where she would don tights and complete homework in the back room until Virginia needed Kristie’s help with classes. Dinner often came from the nearby Joe’s Hot Dogs.

“She’d close the shop at nine o’clock when classes were done and go home,” Kristie said. “The next day, we’d do it again the same way.”

Elaborate recitals featuring hand-sewn costumes, lavish scenery and special effects were held every June at local high school auditoriums; the last recital was at the Rialto Square Theater in Joliet, Kristie said. During the year, the “Adorables” danced at local events such as the annual Kiwanis variety show.

Although all Virginia’s daughters – Patricia McArdle of Georgia, Kitty Kelly Wilson of South Carolina, Michelle “Mickey” Lubeck of Georgia and Kristie – loved dancing, only Mickey, danced professionally, even touring with “Cats” for 15 years, Kristie said, before opening her own dance studio.

“She [Virginia] always told us to go to college and then get a day job,” Kristie said. “She had ingrained in us that the life of dancing instructors was tough: nights, weekends, odd hours, dealing with parents. By the time she had retired, we had done what she had told us to do.”

Virginia was living in South Carolina when she died Nov. 16 at the age of 94.

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